lighting a big tank

[Workaholic]

Ok, So i've off and on tossed around building a large plywood tank. The dimensions I'm thinking at 8'x3'x2' or 359gallons. I have seen quite a few different write ups of people building large plywood tanks, even a few reef setups. The thing that has somewhat confused me is that the lighting that is used on these tanks is quite a bit less then I would think would be needed. Is it possible to run less than typical lighting (as in watts per gallon) when running such a large system? For example, I got the opportunity to check out a 375 built by CFI N of Seattle. Yet the owner was running a pair of 250W metal halides and a few vho's. This is the amount of lighting I would think to be appropriate for a 100g tank not a 375 with LPS. Does anyone have any input on this? The lighting is probably the main thing that would keep me from building a tank like this as it would be very expensive to purchase all the lights I would think would be required let alone the electricity it would eat up.

My plans as far as coral for what I would want to keep in the tank would be LPS and softies. probably the most light intensive coral I would want would be an elegance or a dendro.

Thanks,
Tom

 

[morgan]

elegance dont need lots of light i have seen them live undert 3 fluros or 2+ years and ur average dendro dosent catch light anyway

 

[roscoe]

I think there's a bunch of different factors that play into what type of lighting you might need. The height of your tank, type of reflector and what type of corals you are planning to keep. I'm sure some one with more expertise in lighting will chime in soon.

 

[Workaholic]

well for additional info. I know I will be running metal halides. The reflectors that I would like to use are luminarc III's. I actually have threads out on 3 different forums to get input. So far it looks like 4 250w halides with luminarc 3's and 4 4' VHO actinics are going to be the setup for lighting. If anyone has any input please feel free to chime in. I'm new to the whole big tank arena and could use someone else's experience.

Tom

 

[dnjan]

One nice thing about a tank with a large area is that you can have a range of light environments to support a range of livestock.
No, two MH's will not provide bright lighting for the entire 8' by 3' footprint. But it will provide two brightly-lit areas, a lower-lit area between, and less waste of light close to the sides/ends where you probably wouldn't put anything anyway. You might even end up with less algae growth on the front glass!